


The Beast

by BettlerWerdenFuerstenbrueder



Series: ZMcZ Prompt Ultramarathon [4]
Category: El Goonish Shive
Genre: Gen, Giants, Lovecraftian, Parody
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-24 21:26:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9787595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BettlerWerdenFuerstenbrueder/pseuds/BettlerWerdenFuerstenbrueder
Summary: And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon...





	

_"And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.  And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them that well therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.  And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast."_

_\- The Revelation of St. John_

 

For centuries, modernity has deceived us into an arrogant certainty that the entire universe might be encompassed in emergent assemblages of meat and neurone among the lichen infesting a single minuscule rock.  The recent advent of this new epoch of magic has torn that arrogance asunder, the very artefacts of modernity, the cameraphone, the internet, and the television, turning it upon itself like the ouroboros, becoming a window into the absurdity of our enlightened sophistry.  The epicentre, you may recall, was a city called Moperville, an edge city in the Midwest, that land born into modernity after being left bare by its conquerors' massacres.  Some time ago, I had business there, and reader, pray you never do.

I was barely out of my hotel when I heard a strange sound behind me, like thunder.  A general murmur formed behind me, and a number of pedestrians darted inside.  I turned, and I saw, reaching some six storeys, a beast my mind could scarce comprehend, walking idly down the street.  In that moment, though I lost my faith long ago, I could not help but think of the revelation the angel gave to St. John, of the two great beasts that would rise at the end of days.  More immediately, however, I could see its idle course would bring it right to me!

The beast might best be described, to the extent it could be described, as a great panther, grey in colour, with a tail of bone, along its back a man-sized spire of bone extending from each vertebra.  Its skull protruded from its skinless forehead, bone building infinitely upon bone in a way that reminded of the infinitely complex shapes idly dreamt up by mathematicians - what a thing to see realized, not just materially, but organically!  The monstrous shapes adorning the beasts spine and tail shifted with every step it took, as its muscles expanded and contracted between.

The people were frightened, of course, and fled, but in their fear was an absence of terror.  They fled like men caught in a storm, in fear, yes, but a peaceful fear, a quiet recognition of immediate danger.  In the strange decorum of their flight, I myself stood transfixed by the eldritch creature before me.

One flaxen-haired, buxom adolescent gave me a measure of reassurance, for a brief moment.  She alone seemed as frightened as I would imagine anyone should be, even if her reaction betrayed the apex of both adolescent and hysterical foolishness, as she simply stood still, screaming.  Soon a paw of the beast came down upon her, and she screamed no more.

A moment after, however, the beast lifted its foot, and the girl struggled to her feet.  When she was standing again, she screamed all the louder, but now she came to her senses and, as well as screaming, ran.  Reader, I bear this girl no malice; I was and am glad for her continued existence, but O, how great a comfort it would have been to see her petty body mangled before my eyes, rather than, by her survival, the cosmos itself!

The beast then stepped closer.  I wanted to scream, like that girl, or run, but I could only stand, await whatever hideous fate the beast had planned for me.  It lowered its snout so close that I could not only smell but feel the rank breath coming from each nostril.  A voice rang out over the city, female, soft, yet booming, echoing throughout the entire city.

"Jeremy."

I looked up from the beast, and two women - no, two gods, who in that moment took the form of women - stood some distance away, towering above the tallest building.  I know not whence they came, inasmuch as I would have seen had they come over the horizon.  They were youthful in appearance, to such an extent that if I believed them for a moment to truly be of an Earthly race, I would hesitate to call them "women."  In each of their complexions was an ancient race reflected, one in the olive skin of the Chaldee, the other those unique dark features, not quite the same as those of the Ethiope, that are particular to the children of that tender-hearted Dravidian race brought to their knees by the Aryan Hindoo in millennia long past.

Protruding from this latter, darker goddess's skull was the clearest sign, even more so than their majesty, that whatever these beings were, they were not human.  Countless flagella in the shape of hairs protruded, bound together in twain as though by an invisible force.  I might have almost believed they _were_ hair, but for the way they clung together, protruding forward and outward in a way hair is far too soft to, yet bending and swaying in a way that made their softness manifest.

Despite the great beast in front of me, something about their motion perplexed me enough to hold my attention, and through this attention, I soon realized what it was:  _they were prehensile!_   They were certainly too thin, relative to the being's majesty, to hold any sort of muscle, but still, in the motion of the ends, although they adhered in twain, it was clear that they were not secondary to any substrate, but rather, each and every flagellum was being moved or held in place by some twofold will.

What frightened me most in that moment, however, was not their majesty, but that despite this majesty each wore modern garb, trousers and immodest shirts, the hair of the being without the hideous appendages even glinting as if heavily conditioned.  If Diana is to be lowered onto the stage, let her be lowered as a Hellene!  Rather, these beings walked clothed in mendacity itself.  If the gods are to visit us, let them wear armour, let them wear nothing, let them be decked in ancient finery, let them wear garments we cannot even describe, or fully perceive - let them wear anything but that which might be seen on whomever we should meet!

"Jeremy," came the voice again, which I could see now belonged to the dark one.  Jeremy, Ieremias, on whose admonitions, spurned by all others, seventy-five thousand Jews fled to the very land that birthed the mad Arab Alhazred!  Could this thing have been some ancient cabbalistic monstrosity?  Could this be what drove the Mad Arab's pen?  Alas, what happened next gave no answers, though it was, in a way, illuminating.

"Jeremy!" louder, sharper, ear-splitting.  The beast turned its head as I screamed at the pain of her shout, clutching my ears.  "Oh!  I'm so sorry!" the same goddess now seemed to bellow.  I looked up at her expression, in her massive eyes, now looking directly at me, what could be mistaken for true concern, true pity.  My breath stopped at her attention, even as the beast turned back to me.

At once a blinding light filled my field of vision.  I screamed again, holding up an arm in a futile attempt to shield my eyes, as an impossible, bestial din, almost a distorted miaow, filled the air.  When my vision began to return, I saw the creature, still glowing, floating through the air toward the bellowing goddess's outstretched arms, as the flagella that protruded from her skull took on a similar glow.  She took the creature in her arms, and accompanied by the mute goddess carried it away.  The three of them vanished from sight far more quickly than their majesty should have allowed, I presume to some plane of their own.

I looked around.  It was as though nothing had happened.  As the panicked girl's body had been undamaged, so were the streets.  Men and women filtered back out.  In seconds, I would have thought that I had been dreaming, but that in their conversation I could hear references to the beast, all muttered in lighthearted annoyance.  They _mocked_  this blasphemous beast - they _laughed!_  With every chuckle, with every casual groan and sigh, my horror redoubled.  There was no place for me in Moperville; knowing it would cost me my station, I left for Providence that evening.

Dear reader, you must think me mad.

...you're probably right.


End file.
